How Big Will the Tablet Market Be by 2017?

The tablet market seems to have paused in the second quarter, according to recent estimates from IDC, with growth decelerating. Still, Forrester Research is predicting that the global installed base of tablets will continue to skyrocket in coming years to reach over 900 million by 2017. That's up from just 15 million tablet users in 2010.

Much of the pause is directly related to Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) changing product cycles, as the iPad remains the top-selling product family despite recent market share declines.

Once the market reaches such a large installed base, focus should turn to tablet upgrade cycles. The main reason the PC market is currently struggling is because upgrade cycles are elongating, which may eventually become true of the tablet market later on as well.

In the following video, Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, and Eric Bleeker, CFA, discuss where the tablet market is going, and how investors should interpret the data, and why there may not be appealing investing opportunities.

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Eric Bleeker, CFA, owns shares of NVIDIA. Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple, Qualcomm, and LinkedIn. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and NVIDIA. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Qualcomm. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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